In reading this blog, one might get the impression that I am against spending money.
This is not true. I love spending money. But it’s simply not a very sustainable pasttime.
Saving isn’t an end by itself. It really doesn’t do me any good to die with millions of dollars in the bank because I’ve prided themselves on an aescetic existance. Or worse, because I’ve been stingy and avoided using my money to make the world a better place, such as paying for a hospital, donating to libraries, or even just stimulating the economy. Money’s true power really only comes into play when it exchanges hands.
But you can’t spend money you don’t have coming in. In order to have enough to spend on something you really want, you have to say no to the things that in the long run, really aren’t that big of a deal to you. And you have to say yes to the things that are. We work hard to save where we can so that we can spend where we want.
The other day, I bought a house.
It’s not a large house. But I wouldn’t have been able to do it at all if I hadn’t started bringing lunch to work every day.
For you, it might be retirement. Or the proverbial “rainy day” (As this past year’s massive layoffs have shown, rainy days do happen.) Or it might be a trip. Or that thing you wanted. Or college. Or someone else’s college. Or maybe you’re saving enough to be able to quit work and save off the interest. Whatever it is, spending money isn’t evil. But most of the time, the more you save, the more choices you have in your spending. We all have the equivalent of a house that we want, that is difficult to afford, that we’d really not mind making sacrifices for if we only knew it was attainable.
And that’s what helps us make the little choices– when we know that the little choices add up to big ones.
What’s your house?
